Port of Dover declares a state of emergency as ferry stalls

Nothing works anymore in Dover: A huge traffic jam dominates the ferry port. English families miss their ferries on holiday. The French are to blame, the British complain.

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The holidays have started this week in England and Wales with many families wanting to spend their holidays on the continent. But Dover, one of the most important ferry ports, sinks into chaos.

The queues of cars and trucks were so extreme on Friday that the port in south-east England declared an emergency in the morning, according to several media outlets in Great Britain. Traffic on the approaches to the ferries had come to a complete standstill. Families waited for hours without even getting close to their ship, and some missed their booked crossing, the BBC reports.

Too few French passport inspectors in Dover

The French are to blame for the chaos – at least according to the British interpretation. Dover Port Authority blamed the French authorities for the state of emergency. These would have equipped the passport control with lamentably few staff, it was said in the metropolis in the county of Kent on Friday. Passports are checked on the British side before people board the ferry to Calais. Although the rush was expected, the French had not planned enough staff for passport control. According to the BBC, only half of the twelve passport controls should be open.

“French customs abandoned us this morning,” port director Doug Bannister grumbled on the BBC. In an official statement, his establishment was similarly clear: “The lack of staff at the French border is messing up the start of the summer holidays,” it says there. The ferry ride between Dover and Calais actually only takes an hour and a half. If you made it onto the ferry to the continent.

More bureaucracy because of Brexit

According to information from the German Press Agency (dpa), the background is also Brexit. Because British holidaymakers entering the European Union now have to have their passport stamped because they are only allowed to stay in EU member states for 90 days at a time. “It’s something we insisted on when we left the EU,” British travel reporter Simon Calder said on Sky News television, according to dpa.

In addition to the difficulties in the English Channel, protests against high fuel prices were announced on important transport axes in Great Britain. The protesters wanted to move in extremely slow columns of vehicles on roads such as the M5 north-south axis and the M4 east-west axis to disrupt the flow of traffic. The route is particularly important for holidaymakers who are on holiday in their own country. It is expected that the chaos on the streets will even increase over the weekend.

For those who set out from Great Britain for northern France, the start of the holidays became a nightmare. The BBC spoke to a father who wanted to travel from England to Italy via Calais with his three children. The family arrived in Dover two hours before the ferry departed that morning, according to official advice – but then got stuck and didn’t even come within sight of the terminal for hours.

Another traveler is quoted as saying he is moving at a speed of around 50 meters per hour. “At this rate it will take 34 hours to get to the port”. And all this “with a crying baby”.

According to the BBC, the shipping company P&O Ferries now advises its customers to plan at least six hours for the controls – and in any case to take enough food and water with them.

Sources: BBC / with material from dpa and AFP

Here, as a contrast to the stressful travel, a video to dream: The famous Stonehenge, a view of the Milky Way or the pier of Herne Bay: The British night sky shows its most beautiful side in the photos by photographer Chris Cork.

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DPA
AFP

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